Coming down to Earth - PAU inglés Andalucía 2004 resuelto

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A hot shower and a new wife helped two astronauts come down to earth Thursday after six months in orbit. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and U.S. astronaut Edward Lu landed in Kazakhstan after an unproblematic flight from the International Space Station. The crew, accompanied by Spaniard Pedro Duque, who was on a one-week mission, arrived as planned.

Lu said the exciting life on the 16-nation orbital platform had amply compensated for not enjoying common comforts. “It’s a small price to pay not to be able to eat your favorite food or take a shower if you have the opportunity to live and work in space,” he told a news conference. “But that being said, that first hot shower felt really good.”

Having married his fiancée Ekaterina Dmitriev in August via a satellite video link from space, Malenchenko went straight into married life enthusiastically. “Life continues on earth and we’ve got lots of plans,” he said.

The astronauts said they had been able to keep in touch with their families from the station via email and video telephone. “I missed my family and fiancée, but we had very good communications on board and we were able to talk,” said Lu. “I didn’t feel very much separated from my loved ones on the ground.”

  RESPUESTAS

I. READING COMPREHENSION

A) Answer questions 1-2 according to the information given in the text. Use your own words.

1) How different was daily life on board the Space Station?

• Daily life was very different there because it was impossible to enjoy ordinary comforts such as hot showers or your favorite food.

2) How did the astronauts manage not to miss their families very much? Give two reasons.

• The astronauts managed not to miss their families keeping in touch with them thanks to the Internet and the phone.

b) Are these statements true or false? Justify your answer with words or phrases from the text.

3) Pedro Duque was in orbit for six months.

• FALSE. “The crew, accompanied by Spaniard Pedro Duque, who was on a one-week mission, arrived as planned.

4) The orbital platform was exclusively a Russian and American enterprise.

• FALSE. “Lu said the exciting life on the 16-nation orbital platform”

5) Living in the orbital platform was so stimulating that astronauts could manage without ordinary comforts.

• TRUE. “the exciting life on the 16- nation orbital platform had amply compensated for not enjoying common comforts”.

6) The Russian astronaut got married while in space.

• TRUE. “Having married his fiancée Ekaterina Dmitriev in August via satellite video link from space”.

II. USE OF ENGLISH

7) Give one opposite for EXCITING (adjective)

• boring, uninteresting, dull

8) Give one synonym for CONTINUE (verb)

• stop, give up

9) Find in the text the word which has the following definition:

    “a group of people working on a spaceship”

• crew

10) Give an adjective with the same root as ENJOY (verb)

• enjoyable

11) Give a question for the underlined words:

      Edward Lu met his fiancée after Christmas.

• When did Edward Lu meet his fiancée?

12) Use the words in the boxes to make a meaningful sentence. Use all and only the words in the boxes without changing their form.

      station      had      a      Malenchenko     walk     the     around

• Malenchenko had a walk around the station.

13) Turn the following sentence into passive:

      The astronauts are giving the journalists a lot of information

• The journalists are being given a lot of information by the astronauts.
• A lot of information is being given to the journalists by the astronauts.

14) Complete the following conditional sentence:

• If I ever went to space I would take a lot of photographs.

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